Should classes about emotional intelligence be mandatory at schools? How can I help my son develop these skills at home?

Answers

Navigating ADHD,
Tracey Bromley Goodwin, M.Ed and Holly Oberacker, ATR, LMHC, leading experts in the field of ADHD

Dec 02, 2015

This is a great question! Some of us our born with natural strengths in this area and other's have strengths in other areas. In this face paced society with all of the technological advances many children are missing important experiences that help develop emotional intelligence. We would love to see strategies for developing emotional intelligence built right into the curriculum at every school. There are a lot of things you can also be doing at home. Think of this as teaching your child the mechanics of emotions, their own as well as others. This includes perceiving emotions, using emotions to promote thinking, understanding emotions and managing emotions. You can begin by labeling emotions in your everyday life. When you are happy or sad label the emotion so that your child learns the vocabulary. You can take this a step further by matching facial expressions with emotions. Take it even further by having young children use a mirror to make facial expressions that match emotions. Books also provide a great opportunity to add in questions about what charcters might be feeling. This doesn't have to be serious work, have fun and talk about emotions! Check out the article below for more information http://psychology.about.com/od/personalitydevelopment/a/emotionalintell.htm.